Sand collects in shallow parts of the ocean like the place shown in (A). It is carried to the sea by rivers that move sediment from eroding mountains. The larger grains of sediment are deposited closer to shore and the smaller grains are deposited further from shore. The sand often forms ripples, like you can see in (A), and even underwater sand dunes and may eventually become layers of sedimentary rock called sandstone like that shown in (B).

How do people get to the shallow ocean? They scuba dive!

Back to the Table of Environments


Both images courtesy of Martin Miller, University of Oregon and the Earth Science World Imagebank.
Last modified January 6, 2004 by Lisa Gardiner.

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